INFO:
On February 28, 2012, Robert Glasper Experiment will release Black Radio
(Blue Note Records/EMI),

a future landmark album that boldly stakes out
new musical territory and transcends any notion of genre, drawing from
jazz, hip hop, R&B and rock, but refusing to be pinned down by any
one tag. The first full-length album from the GRAMMY-nominated
keyboardist’s electric Experiment band—saxist Casey Benjamin, bassist
Derrick Hodge, and drummer Chris Dave—Black Radio also features many of
Glasper’s famous friends from the spectrum of urban music, seamlessly
incorporating appearances from a jaw-dropping roll call of special
guests including Erykah Badu, Bilal, Lupe Fiasco, Lalah Hathaway, Shafiq Husayn (Sa-Ra), KING, Ledisi, Chrisette Michele, Mos Def, Musiq Soulchild, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Stokley Williams (Mint Condition).
Throughout the Experiment wears its eclecticism on its sleeve,
presenting new collaborative originals and surprising cover songs. They
transform the Afro-Cuban standard “Afro Blue” with Erykah Badu, Sade’s
“Cherish The Day” with Lalah Hathaway, David Bowie’s “Letter to
Hermione” with Bilal, and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with Casey
Benjamin’s vocoder vocal.
Glasper has long kept one foot planted firmly in jazz and the other
in hip hop. His gig at the Blue Note Jazz Club earlier this year became a
freestyle jam session when Kanye West, Mos Def and Lupe Fiasco crashed the stage.
The Los Angeles Times once wrote that “it’s a short list of jazz
pianists who have the wherewithal to drop a J Dilla reference into a
Thelonious Monk cover, but not many jazz pianists are Robert Glasper,”
adding that “he’s equally comfortable in the worlds of hip-hop and
jazz,” and praising the organic way in which he “builds a bridge between
his two musical touchstones.”

Growing up in Houston, Texas, Robert Glasper had a strong musical
influence in his mother, who played piano and sang gospel music in
church as well as in jazz and blues clubs in Houston. By the age of
twelve, he was playing piano in church and often accompanied his mother
in clubs. Raised on gospel, Motown, and R&B, by his teens he was
listening to jazz, rock, pop and hip hop. He attended the Houston High
School for the Performing Arts and moved to New York City to study at
New School University. While still in school he was already playing with
Christian McBride and Kenny Garrett, and went on to play with Nicholas
Payton, Terence Blanchard, and Roy Hargrove.
After releasing his debut album Mood on the Fresh Sound label in 2003 followed by two buzzed about Blue Note albums with his acoustic Trio — Canvas (2005) and In My Element
(2007)—Glasper perfectly captured his unique duality with Double-Booked
(2009), an album that juxtaposed his Trio and Experiment bands, and
earned the keyboardist his first GRAMMY nomination.
He’s worked extensively with Q-Tip, playing keyboards on the rapper’s GRAMMY-nominated 2008 album The Renaissance
and co-writing the album single “Life Is Better” which featured his
labelmate Norah Jones. Glasper also serves as the Music Director in
rapper Mos Def’s touring band, and has toured with the multi-platinum
R&B singer Maxwell. New York Magazine has called his music “direct, forceful, inventive, and accessible without pandering.”